Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: What Do You Call a Jobs Bill That Begets No Jobs? When President Barack Obama “pivoted” to jobs a few months back (from what, the White House didn’t say), he said he was going to take his plan to rebuild the U.S. economy directly to the American people. It’s a good… Continue reading Jobs Bill
The Economist – Buttonwood: A trillion here, $500 billion there The huge shortfalls in pension plans THE pension hole just keeps getting bigger. The assets owned by pension schemes have generally been falling in price while their liabilities have been relentlessly rising. One of the culprits is quantitative easing (QE), a tactic devised by central… Continue reading Pensions
Occupy Boston Gets Out Of Hand!
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – US homeowners yet to feel boost from ‘Twist’ How far mortgage rates fall will be the test of whether the Fed is successful. So, the divergence between what people pay for their mortgages and the yield on Treasuries is important. If households are to benefit… Continue reading Operation Twist Is Not Helping Homeowners Refi
The Wall Street Journal – Inside the Fed Fight Over Bond Buys Federal Reserve officials weighed several options for boosting the economy when they met in September and could revisit those measures—including more bond purchases—if the recovery continues to flounder. Minutes of the Sept. 20-21 meeting of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee, released Wednesday… Continue reading The FOMC Minutes
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Mutual-Fund Investors Pull Out $10.95 Billion An estimated $10.95 billion was pulled from long-term mutual funds in the latest week, according to the Investment Company Institute. The outflows came on declines in bond, hybrid and domestic-equities funds, offsetting gains in foreign-equities and municipal funds,… Continue reading Mutual Funds
The Wall Street Journal – Central Banks Strain to Fill Gaps in Fiscal Policy Political gridlock is preventing rich-country governments from responding to what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has delicately described as an economy that is “close to faltering.” Once again, central banks are under pressure to step in. Which raises a question: Is… Continue reading In Bernanke’s Defense
The Wall Street Journal – Buffett Builds His Tax-the-Rich Case According to a letter Mr. Buffett sent to a Republican congressman on Tuesday, the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman and chief executive disclosed that he earned almost $63 million last year, yet paid less than $7 million in federal income tax. Mr. Buffett long has urged… Continue reading Buffett Is At It Again With The Taxes
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Laureate Pissarides Sees Bigger Greek ‘Haircut’ Greece is likely to avoid a full default while investors in its bonds may take losses of 50 percent, Nobel economics laureate Christopher Pissarides said. “I am very optimistic that there will be some kind of a rescue plan that will… Continue reading More On Greek Haircuts
The Financial Times – George Soros: A routemap through the eurozone minefield The financial markets are now anxiously waiting for the leaders’ next move. Greece clearly needs an orderly restructuring because a disorderly default could cause a meltdown. The next move will have fateful consequences. It will either calm the markets or drive them to… Continue reading George Soros Chimes In On Europe’s Woes
CNBC – Economist Nouriel Roubini’s Firm Is For Sale Roubini Global Economics, the economics research firm begun by noted economist Nouriel Roubini, is for sale, according to sources who have been approached by an investment bank conducting an auction for the firm. RGE, as it’s known, has grown quickly since its founding by Roubini, who… Continue reading Roubini Is For Sale
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Short-Selling Curbs Only Helped a Little: Nasdaq Economist Short-selling curbs may have shielded some weaker stocks from a bigger massacre in August, but they didn’t drive up stock prices, one observer said today. Curbs on shorting beat-up shares did drive down the overall amount of “aggressive” short-selling amid August’s massive market… Continue reading Short-Selling Curbs